The archivist as educator: Integrating critical thinking skills into historical research methods instruction

American Archivist

Volumn 64, Issue 2, 2001, Pages 363-384

  Robyns, Marcus C ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34948888859     PISSN: 03609081     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17723/aarc.64.2.q4742x2324j10457     Document Type: Article

References (81)

1. David Hackett Fischer, Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), 40.
2. Two important reports, Integrity in the College Curriculum (Washington D.C.: Association of American Colleges, 1985)
3. Involvement in Learning (Washington D.C.: National Institute of Education, 1984), emphasized the importance of critical thinking as one of the primary goals of an undergraduate education.
4. President George H. W. Bush, " National Goals for Education (1990)," State of the Union Address, Washington D.C., 1990.
5. Michigan Curriculum Framework, available at May 29, 2001.
6. Margaret Hedstrom, conversation with the author, , Michigan Archival Association Annual Conference, Wayne State University, June 25, 1999.
7. See also Ken Osborne, "Archives in the Classroom," Archivaria, 23 (Winter 1986-87): 16. Osborne notes that, for the most part, archivists have not traditionally seen themselves as having an educational role beyond serving university communities or independent researchers. In fact, archivists think of education, according to Osborne, in the context of education of other archivists in the profession.
8. Kathleen W. Craver, Using Internet Primary Sources to Teach Critical Thinking Skills in History, (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999), 8-10. Craver's book is an example of how far ahead professional librarians are of archivists in dealing with the issue of critical thinking and primary sources. Although Craver does a fine job defining a primary source, her discussion of critical thinking is weak and really does not offer a useful breakdown of the necessary skills and their application in research. However, the book does provide an excellent compilation of primary sources taken off the Internet, along with adequate guidelines for their use in the classroom.
9. Richard Paul, "Defining Critical Thinking," in Center for Critical Thinking (2000). Available at May 18, 2001.
10. Barry K. Beyer, "Critical Thinking: What is It?" Social Education 49, no. 4 (1985): 271-72.
11. See also Harvey Siegel, "Critical Thinking as an Educational Ideal," Education Forum 45 (November 1980): 11.
12. Although too numerous to mention them all, some of the best works on critical thinking include John H. Clark and Arthur W. Biddle, Teaching Critical Thinking, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1993);
13. Grace E. Grant, Teaching Critical Thinking, (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988);
14. Chet Meyers, Teaching Students to Think Critically, (San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1986)
15. Richard Paul, Critical Thinking: What Every Person Needs to Survive in a Rapidly Changing World, (Rohnert Park, Calif.: Foundation for Critical Thinking, 1992);
16. Louis E. Raths, Selma Wasserman, Arthur Jonas, and Arnold Rothstein, Teaching for Thinking: Theory, Strategies, and Activities for the Classroom, (New York: Teachers College Press, 1986). Several useful Internet sites also exist, and include; The Center for Critical Thinking ()
17. Longview Community College, Lee's Summit, Mo., and Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum Project ()
18. Meyers, Teaching Students to Think Critically, 1986, xi. Meyers is a professor of humanities at Metropolitan State University in Minneapolis.
19. See also James H. McMillan, "Enhancing College Students' Critical Thinking: A Review of Studies," Research in Higher Education 26, no. 1 (1987): 3-4.
20. Daniel L. Wick, "In Defense of Knowledge: An Intellectual Framework for General Education," Change 13 (September 1981): 8-9.
21. Raymond S. Nickerson, "Why Teach Thinking?," in Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice, ed. Joan Boykoff Baron and Robert J. Sternberg, (New York: W.H. Freeman and Co, 1987), 32.
22. Wick, In Defense of Knowledge, 8-9.
23. Grant, Teaching Critical Thinking, 2.
24. Siegel, Critical Thinking as an Educational Ideal, 8.
25. Beyer, Critical Thinking: What is It?, 271-72.
26. Irwin J. Lehman, "Changes in Critical Thinking, Attitudes, and Values from Freshman to Senior Years," Journal of Educational Psychology 54, no. 6 (1963), 305-15.
27. Patricia M. King, "William Perry's Theory of Intellectual and Ethical Development," in Applying New Developmental Findings, ed. Lee Knefelkamp, Carole Widick, and Cyde A. Parker, (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1978), 38-39.
28. Patrick T. Terenzini, Leonard Springer, Ernest T. Pascarella, and Amaury Nora, "Influences Affecting the Development of Students' Critical Thinking Skills", Research in Higher Education 36, no. 1 (1995), 24-25.
29. and Robert H. Enns, "A Taxonomy of Critical Thinking Dispositions and Abilities," in Teaching Thinking Skills: Theory and Practice, ed. Joan Boykoff Baron and Robert J. Sternberg (New York: W.H. Freeman and Co., 1987): 1-26. In this fundamental article, Enns does an excellent job of breaking down and analyzing the process and defines critical thinking as "reasonable reflective thinking that is focused on deciding what to believe to do."
30. Richard J. Evans, In Defense of History, (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1993): 66-70.
31. Homer Carey Hockett, The Critical Method in Historical Research and Writing, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1955): 13.
32. Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff, The Modern Researcher, 5th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992), 155-159.
33. See also Fischer, Historians' Fallacies, 40-63
34. and Conal Furray and Michael J. Salevouris, The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide (Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, Inc., 1988), 1-15
35. and Robert Blackey, ed., History Anew: Innovations in the Teaching of History Today (Long Beach: The University Press, California State University, 1993), 19-46. This book offers four excellent articles by historians on the use of critical thinking skills in reading historical literature.
36. Philip C. Brooks, "The Historian's Stake in Federal Records," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 43 (September 1956): 273-74.
37. See also Philip C. Brooks, Research in Archives: The Use of Unpublished Primary Sources, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969).
38. Walter Rundell, Jr., In Pursuit of American History: Research and Training in the United States (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970).
39. Rundell, In Pursuit of American History, 20-21.
40. Janice E. Ruth, "Educating the Reference Archivist," American Archivist 51 (Summer 1988): 271.
41. See also Barbara C. Orbach, "The View from the Researcher's Desk: Historian's Perceptions of Research and Repositories," American Archivist 54 (Winter 1991): 41-42.
42. Survey conducted by the author via e-mail, 1999.
43. Hockett, The Critical Method in Historical Research and Writing, 13-15.
44. See also Furray and Salevouris, The Methods and Skills of History: A Practical Guide, 142.
45. Brooks, Research in Archives, 84.
46. See also, Gabrielle Blais and David Enns, "From Paper Archives to People Archives: Public Programming in the Management of Archives," Archivaria 31 (Winter 1990-91): 103
47. Elsie T. Freeman, "Soap and Education: Archival Training, Public Service and the Profession-An Essay," Midwestern Archivist 16, no. 2, (1991): 90
48. Joyce, "Archivists and Research Use,"
49. 126, and Edwin Bridges, Gregory Hunter, Page Putnam Miller, David Thelen, and Gerhard Weinberg, "Historians and Archivists: A Rationale for Cooperation," Journal of American History 80 (June 1993): 180-82.
50. See also, Barzun and Graff, The Modern Researcher, 154-200
51. and Furay and Salevouris, The Methods and Skills of History, 142-145.
52. Mona McCormick, "Critical Thinking and Library Instruction," RQ 22 (Summer 1983): 339-42.
53. Sonia Bodi, "Critical Thinking and Bibliographic Instruction: The Relationship," Journal of Academic Librarianship 14, no. 3, (1988): 150-53.
54. Nancy Thomas Totten, "Teaching Students to Evaluate Information: A Justification," RQ 29 (Spring 1990): 348-54.
55. See also Ethelene Whitmire, "Development of Critical Thinking Skills: An Analysis of Academic Library Experiences and Other Measures," College & Research Libraries 59 (May 1998): 266-73.
56. Kathleen Roe, "Public Programs," in Managing Archives and Archival Institutions, ed. James Gregory Bradsher (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 221.
57. William J. Maher, The Management of College and University Archives, (Metuchen, N.J. and London: The Scarecrow Press, 1992), 317.
58. Mary Jo Pugh, Providing Reference Services for Archives and Manuscripts, (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 1992), 19-20.
59. Bruce W. Dearstyne, "What is the Use of Archives? A Challenge for the Profession," American Archivis 50 (Winter, 1987), 84.
60. See also, William L. Joyce, "Archivists and Research Use," American Archivist no. (Spring 1984): 131-32.
61. Elise T. Freeman, "In the Eye of the Beholder: Archives Administration from the User's Point of View," American Archivist 47 (Spring 1984): 111-23.
62. William Saffady, "Reference Services to Researchers in Archives," RQ 14 (Winter 1974): 139-44.
63. Ken Osborne, "Archives in the Classroom," 17.
64. Kathleen D. Roe, "Public Programs," 220.
65. Michael Cook, "Teaching with Archives," International Journal of Archives 1, no. 1 (1980), 26
66. See also Mary N. Speakman, "The User Talks Back," American Archivist 47 (Spring 1984), 171. Speakman recounts an experience in an archives reading room where she observed an interaction between two college students. "As they were reading and making notes, one of the young ladies said to the other, 'Don't you think we'd better put down the title of the book and the author?' the other answered, No, the teacher will know we got it some place!'"
67. Some of the useful web sites include: National Center for History in the Schools, ; Primary Source Documents from the Collections at the Library of Virginia, ;
68. Minnesota Historical Society School Programs 1999-2000, ;
69. The British Columbia Archives, "The Amazing Time Machine," at ;
70. The National Archives and Records Administration's "Digital Classroom," .
71. Kathleen Roe, Teaching With Historical Records, (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1981);
72. Fay D. Metcalf and Matthew T. Downey, Using Local History in the Classroom, (Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1982)
73. Teaching with Documents, (Washington: National Archives and Records Administration, 1989).
74. and Ernest T. Pascarella, Louise Bohr, Amaury Nora, and Patrick T. Terenzini, "Is Differential Exposure to College Linked to the Development of Critical Thinking?" Research in Higher Education 37, no. 2 (1996), 159-74.
75. Jacques Barzun and Henry Graff, The Modern Researcher, 4th ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, 1985), 48.
76. Susan Grigg, "Archival Practice and the Foundations of Historical Method," Journal of American History 78 ( June 1991): 230-33.
77. Barbara C. Orbach, "The View from the Researcher's Desk: Historian's Perceptions of Research and Repositories," 33.
78. Mary Jo Pugh, "The Illusion of Omniscience: Subject Access and the Reference Archivist," American Archivist 45 (Winter 1982), 272.
79. Paul, "Defining Critical Thinking."
80. David Kobrin, Beyond the Textbook: Teaching History Using Documents and Primary Sources, (Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann, 1996).
81. Kobrin, Beyond the Textbook, 36.